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Minister questions absence of several media heads,editors at UNESCO seminar

Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that several Heads of media organisations and their Editors had refrained from attending the UNESCO funded seminar calling for an end to the impunity for attacks against journalists though they had received invitations.

The Minister was delivering a speech under the theme of “Politics in Media” at the official launch of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association website held at Sri Lanka Press Institute yesterday.

“Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also questioned why they failed to attend the seminar. I inquired about the invitations and I was told that all media organisation Heads and their Editors were invited,” Minister Samaraweera said.

The Minister questioned about the absence of the heads of all media organizations and added that it was not about politics but journalists.

“The truth is that some heads are also trying to push the country back to the previous era, while some newspapers publish false reports,”he said.

Minister Samaraweera further said the State media has shown an improvement and has a more balanced coverage when compared to the Private media and added that several people still claim that before looking into the private media, the State media needs to be improved.